In the second part of a series of blogs looking back at excursions held for international students earlier in the summer, we share two special days out to the historic city.

On 24  July, Birkbeck’s international students visited Oxford with tour guide, Andrew, taking them on a guided walking tour of the beautiful and ancient university city. He explained its long history, showed its most famous buildings and told some intriguing stories, including the strange and sometimes treacherous world of college tortoise racing!  Afterwards, students enjoyed a relaxing chauffeured punting tour of the River Cherwell, and then had a few hours free time for exploring, eating, shopping and chilling out.

Another scheduled day out to Oxford, later in the month, brought a typical British weather system; with umbrellas at the ready!
Despite the frequent downpours of rain, the students’ spirits were not dampened. As our guide Andrew pointed out, ‘there’s no bad weather in England, just wrong clothes’. He led another interesting and entertaining walking tour of the city, pointing out the beautiful historic sights of Oxford and explaining its darker historical links to the slave trade.    

Due to the rain, the group abandoned plans to go punting on the river and instead visited the beautiful Grand Café, the oldest coffee shop in the UK, which dates from 1650. After enjoying coffee, tea and cakes, the sun came out again for a few hours of free time to explore the city.